Another delay in election fraud trial

Monday

Mar 20, 2017 at 3:51 PMMar 20, 2017 at 3:51 PM

Roger Phillips Record Staff Writer @rphillipsblog

STOCKTON — Former Manteca Unified board member and Stockton City Council candidate Sam Fant’s trial on felony election fraud and conspiracy charges remained at a standstill Monday morning, just as it has for months.

At the request of Fant’s attorney, Ralph Cingcon, Judge Ronald Northup postponed setting a trial date. Northup was to have set the date at Monday’s hearing.

Cingcon cited “extenuating circumstances.” Northup sounded impatient.

“Why don’t we pick a trial date and then come back for pretrial on (April) 10?” Northup asked.

Cingcon and prosecutor Stephen Maier approached the bench. After a two-minute conference, April 10 was chosen as the date for the trial-setting conference. The actual trial is expected to start sometime later in 2017.

After Monday’s hearing, Maier declined comment other than to say, “They need more time to talk. That’s all I can figure out.”

Cingcon said, “I want to give it a thorough evaluation and give (Fant) the benefit of my analysis.”

Fant declined comment after his first court hearing since Feb. 6.

Until February, progress in the case had been delayed for months while Fant was hiring Cingcon to replace attorney Yolanda Huang, with whom he parted ways in November.

The 29-year-old Fant, a former Manteca Unified trustee, is accused of conspiring to help candidates Ashley Drain and Alexander Bronson win election to the Manteca Unified school board in 2014 even though they failed to meet district residency requirements.

Drain and Bronson resigned in 2015. Bronson has accepted a plea agreement in his case, with a sentencing hearing slated for April 7, according to the court website.

Drain's next scheduled court appearance is Wednesday morning.

— Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.